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Politicians & Pundits: Frank Gaffney

This weekend, social conservatives are gathering in Washington, DC for the annual Values Voters Summit hosted by the Family Research Council. The event will feature speeches by conservative lawmakers, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, as well as prominent leaders in the social conservative movement. People for the American Way put together a helpful primer on several controversial speakers who will take the stage. Here are just some of the extreme views that will be represented.

Tony Perkins, Family Research Council

Perkins: “It’s Disgusting” That Obama Supports Telling Kids With A “Perversion” That “It’s Okay To Be Immoral.” According to a letter from Tony Perkins: “The videos are titled ‘It Gets Better.’ They are aimed at persuading kids that although they’ll face struggles and perhaps bullying for ‘coming out’ as homosexual (or transgendered or some other perversion), life will get better. President Obama, Michelle Obama, Vice President Biden, and many White House staffers recorded and posted ‘It Gets Better’ videos on the first-ever White House web page devoted exclusively to the so-called LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) ‘community.’ Can you imagine George Washington, Ronald Reagan, or any other president telling school children that it’s okay to be immoral and that they’ll eventually feel better about it? It’s disgusting. And it’s part of a concerted effort to persuade kids that homosexuality is okay and actually to recruit them into that ‘lifestyle.’” [Perkins Letter via RightWingWatch.org, 8/18/11]

Perkins: Lawmakers Who Vote To Repeal DADT Will Have “The Blood Of Innocent Soldiers On Their Hands.” From Tony Perkins’ “Washington Update” on December 15, 2010: “How many brave men and women are liberals willing to sacrifice so that homosexuals can flaunt their lifestyle? The only reason for changing the present policy is if it would help the military accomplish its mission. So far, no one has produced a single reason how it would. Until then, the Senate has to ask itself: Do they want the blood of innocent soldiers on their hands just to appease the political base of Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)? If they can live with that, then they’re unlike any human beings I’ve ever met.” [Tony Perkins’ Washington Update via Archive.org, 12/15/10]

The Obama administration is, of course, as we’ve been talking about throughout the program, seeking reelection in part on a platform of its success in national security and foreign affairs. Looking at the piece of the puzzle that you’ve just described, and perhaps more generally your assessment of the conduct of this president as commander-in-chief, is that platform or is that claim to popular support warranted in your judgment? Or is it, this is my word not yours, butis it really reminiscent of kind of a Hitlerian Big Lie?

And Grover, obviously, is less concerned about the national security, shall we say. I believe that he’s been working for a bunch of Islamists for a long time, which may further explain what he’s doing here. But at the very minimum he’s got his eye exclusively on the taxes issue. And Jim, I guess what I’m really worried about is, to the extent you have somebody in Republican circles fragging his own team, as Grover Norquist is doing, it can only benefit the opponents and the people who are trying to bring about this train wreck. And maybe that, again, is in the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood – I certainly don’t think it’s in the interests of the United States.